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المحتوى بالإنجليزية A Guide to Managing Your Remote Workers
07 December 2020
The world we have found ourselves living in right now is unsure, scary, brand new, and exciting all at once. All of our lives have changed in one way or another over the past year due to the crisis of Covid-19, with the majority of us having to adjust to working from home.

Moving your organization from an office setting to a makeshift workplace is definitely not easy, especially when it is abrupt and unexpected. There are so many inevitable challenges that both employees and managers come up against: slips in concentration, distractions, loneliness, ineffective communication, and much more.

However, remote working doesn’t have to equal disaster. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to managing your remote workers effectively so that you have one less thing to worry about. Living through a pandemic is difficult enough without your business having to struggle.

Keep reading and you’ll find out just how to identify any potential issues that your company could be experiencing due to having to work remotely, and a definitive list of tried-and-tested ways to combat these issues.

Common Challenges Managing Remote Work
There are many challenges that you may well come up against when you begin managing your newly remote employees. We’ve outlined the key issues that you could face, as it’s always best to be aware of them. There’s no need to worry though, we’ve also put together a handy list of tricks for you all about how managers can best support their team remotely.

Many people who work in roles like remote illustration jobs or remote SEO jobs may be more used to working from their homes. However, for the vast majority of staff, it will be an entirely new experience to work for their organization from a distance.

Identifying challenges is the first step towards solving them. Many of these issues are somewhat inevitable due to the nature of remote work.

Communication
Initially, one of the hardest challenges that you’ll come up against is learning how to effectively communicate with your employees.

Besides the obvious problem of not being able to see the people you work with and interact with them on a daily basis, there are more implicit communication issues that your managers need to tackle to keep your employees happy.

Firstly, a lot of the intent behind online messages can get lost in translation as it can be hard to detect someone’s mood or tone from a simple text or email. This is especially if you are communicating with a member of the team with who you are not as well acquainted!

Failing to communicate regularly with your staff can have disastrous consequences. Top tips for avoiding this include never canceling on a team call or one-on-one check-ins. Any cancellations, unless totally necessary, will cause your employees to lose confidence in your business and feel as though their time has been wasted.

Making people feel important and listened to is vital within a successful company, and effective communication is the key to this.

Supervision
With remote working comes a new sense of independence and responsibility for your team members, which many will struggle with.

A lack of face-to-face supervision and managerial feedback can be tough for all involved. For supervisors, there will be worries that employees are not working as hard or efficiently as they should be, and for employees, there will be struggles without proper access to the support and communication that supervision provides.

Remote working is a new concept for the vast majority of people, and so it is likely that we’re going to slip up. This could mean that a lack of in-person supervision which in turn, reduces productivity and confidence.

Access to information
A huge challenge to be overcome is the barriers to access to information. Many newly remote workers will end up spending a lot of time trying to locate information from the company or from co-workers in a way that they wouldn’t in an office. Everything takes longer: sending an email requires waiting for a response, whereas leaning over a desk to ask your colleague something takes seconds.

Limited access to information will not do any favors for the culture of your organization or the confidence of your staff. This is why it is so important that you have the best software and tools, as with outdated technology or poor organization your team members will struggle to find information that they need, become confused, and possibly make harmful mistakes.

Social isolation
A very sad reality of working remotely for many is an impinging feeling of social isolation. Spending the majority of your time by yourself trying to concentrate without any face-to-face interaction can definitely take its toll.

This can be especially hard if you are used to working in an environment where you are surrounded by people. To go from this to being somewhat isolated can be a difficult and sudden transition. A potential side-effect of this isolation over an extended period of time is that some workers feel a diminished sense of belonging to their company.

Home Distractions
Somewhat unavoidable is the problem of home distractions with remote work. Some people are more equipped than others to be able to work despite distractions, but the majority of us will succumb to them to an extent.

A sudden transition to remote work means that many will not have a dedicated workspace ready to use in their homes. This means that they will be working in communal spaces or areas which are not conducive to concentration. We must also take into consideration that more than one member of a given household could be working from home, which can increase the possibility of home distractions.

Common distractions around the house include family members or friends, parenting responsibilities, pets, and loud noises. Fostering a level of closeness between employees and with managers can help to create a culture of openness in which everyone can share their best tips for how to avoid getting distracted.

Home distractions

How Managers Can Support Remote Employees
After reading of the challenges that can arise from managing remote teams, you may be feeling worried about the future of your business. We’re here to tell you that there’s no need for concern!

All of the aforementioned issues can be remedied. As long as you have the right tools and attitudes, there is no reason not to be able to still connect with your employees and keep them moving with positivity and an excellent work ethic!

We’ve outlined some of the ways in which you can combat common issues with remote working, whether this be with part-time remote jobs or roles which are more traditionally suited to an office environment.

Daily Structured Routine
It is absolutely essential to come up with and stick to a daily structured routine. This should be implemented and monitored by supervisors to ensure that some sense of normality and system is adhered to.

An excellent and simple method to incorporate routine into how your employees work is to schedule a daily check-up via a video or audio call using software like Zoom. Some supervisors prefer this to be a series of one-on-one calls, whilst others would rather have a call with all team members. Topics to be covered during these calls include asking how work is progressing, if anyone has concerns or questions, and laying out plans of action for future projects or tasks.

Any way in which you want to check up on your staff is valid, as long as it is pre-planned and regular. This gives your staff a sense of structure reminiscent of their old work environment and lets them know that you are there if they need to communicate anything to you.

Another benefit of incorporating a daily structured routine into the lives of your teams is that managers will get to interact with employees potentially more than they did before the work environment went remote. An employee will now feel like they can put a name to a face for many of their colleagues which can be a great step in bringing the business together and encouraging trust and productivity.

Provide Tech Solutions
The days in which email alone was a sufficient means to communicate with colleagues are over. Managing your new remote workers requires a more sophisticated way to communicate.

Those who work from home benefit from having multiple technology solutions, such as video conferences and direct messages. There are so many tech solutions out there, it’s just a matter of choosing the ones that work for you and your employees the best.

Managing remote workers makes the arranging of meetings much harder. You can no longer walk into a room and round everyone up for a talk. Instead, you’ll have to find the right technological solutions that work for everyone. The best tools will enable managers and employees to stay on the same page and organize part of your time for you.

A communication tool that is audio-visual such as video conferencing or phone calls can have many advantages for workers, such as allowing for increase shared knowledge and reducing a sense of social isolation.

What’s more, there are much better ways of expressing particular tones and intents than sending a rudimentary email. What can be much better is communicating through video or by using GIFs and emoticons on a messaging application such as Slack.

Provide tech solutions

Clear Terms and Outlined Brief
In order to further maintain structure and efficiency, it is a good idea for supervisors to outline clear briefs and terms.

An excellent system that supervisors can use to do this is by setting rigid expectations for their teams in terms of communication and workload. For example, let your workers know when is the best time for them to contact you, when to expect video conference calls, and when it is appropriate to use direct messaging, email, and so on.

Organizing rules of engagement is a great method of keeping consistency within your business and can be very satisfying then carried out efficiently.

It is important to establish clear times and an outlined brief as soon as possible when managing remote employees. This way every member of the team will be able to communicate effectively with each other, share information as needed, and set the tone for what is expected of them while working at home.

If you work within a large organization, there is a chance that members of your staff will be working in different time zones. Keep this in mind when creating schedules and check-ins, as not every employee will be available at the same time as others.

Many employees struggle with working remotely initially because they fail to adapt to no longer being in their workplaces. Making everything clearly outlined and detailed, with tips for them to follow during their first time working without direct contact is a great method of inspiring confidence and providing support.

Social Engagement
One of the easiest and most important ways that managers can support remote workers is through engaging in social interaction whenever possible. A simple means to do this is allowing time at the beginning or end of a work call to discuss non-work related topics, such as how everyone is doing, or what they are up to.

It may seem obvious, but social engagement can do wonders for any business, remote or otherwise! Going from working in an office surrounded by people to being stuck inside by yourself all day can be really tricky, so managers should always try and encourage social interaction.

Human beings are social creatures, so at the very least your colleagues should all know each other by first name and be comfortable chatting. Failure to foster social engagement in your organization can have serious health impacts on your staff.

A long-term impact of loneliness (which can be triggered from remote work) is the development of a depressive or anxious state. A good manager will be aware of this and be actively working towards avoiding their teams reaching such a state.

Not only this but encouraging employees to interact with each other can also be effective in reducing feelings of social isolation and increasing mutual knowledge. Virtual events or even informal chats over a messaging app or on the phone can be really helpful in building up trusting relationships.

Team Player
As a manager, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to distance yourself from your employees too much. You want to be personable and approachable in order to cultivate a culture of transparency and openness in your office. The alternative to this is coming across as either intimidating and far-removed from the work and lives of the employee, which is definitely not desirable.

To combat this common issue, supervisors should engage with their employees by offering encouragement, work advice, and emotional support if necessary. In the context of remote work, where many people experienced an abrupt and stress-inducing change to their lives, it is important for managers to empathize with this and listen to their employees.

Easy ways to become more of a team player include encouraging social interaction amongst colleagues, taking the time to listen to concerns or feedback from an employee, and providing reassurance and resources when needed.

Many companies who work remotely will organize an event once a week or fortnight as a way to check in and be present with its employees. A great way to do this is by hosting virtual parties or starting a club where managers and employees can send a book or article they enjoyed recently, for example.

Final Thoughts
Trying to manage many employees remotely for the first time is challenging and can feel difficult or frustrating at times. The majority of companies who have had to go remote in the past year did not plan on doing so, meaning that they had to overcome many unknown dilemmas and hurdles.

It is a learning process for everyone within a business to figure out how to effectively work from home, but it is the job of managers to ensure that the transition to working remotely for the first time is successful and as smooth as possible.

However, it is entirely possible for companies to be just as successful with a remote team as they were within an office setting. Some of the rules and methods may be a little different or unconventional, but the fundamentals of managing a team remain the same.

Make sure to follow the guide that we’ve given you, and always be aware of any challenges that either you or your employees are facing. The most important part about managing remote teams is making sure that everyone is happy and actively wanting to continue working. Ensuring this means sticking to the tips we’ve outlined for you above, and always remembering to be a team member.

We will get through the Covid-19 pandemic together, and if you manage your newly remote workers well, your company can come out the other side more successful than ever!

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الأربعاء, 21 سبتمبر 2022 13:07

نصائح واتجاهات التوظيف لعام 2021

من التوسع المفاجئ في العمل عن بُعد إلى طلبات خدمة العملاء الجديدة، كان لوباء COVID-19 آثار كبيرة على كيفية قيام شركات المحاسبة بأعمالها

معلومات إضافية

المحتوى بالإنجليزية The Future of Finance: Hiring Tips And Trends For 2021
From the sudden expansion in remote working to new client service requests, the COVID-19 pandemic has had significant effects on how CPA firms do business. And while many disruptions might be behind us, the aftershocks will rumble on for some time.

Paul McDonald

Pandemic-driven changes creating benefits

As leaders scrambled to put new processes in place to navigate the effects of COVID-19 on the business, they have made progress in a number of areas. In a survey of senior managers:

41% say leadership communication is better now than it was pre-pandemic
37% think collaboration has improved
31% feel like there’s been substantial innovation over the past few months
Perhaps the most positive development is the way some companies have reimagined the hiring process. Of companies asked about their hiring methods in the age of social distancing:

57% are conducting interviews and onboarding remotely
40% have shortened the end-to-end hiring process
38% have advertised fully remote positions
These changes can help you act quickly and decisively when you’ve identified the right candidate for a position. And the prevalence of remote working means you can look further afield for skilled staff, giving your company access to a deeper pool of talent.

Accounting staff are in demand

One aspect hasn’t changed: It’s still a competitive hiring market for financial talent. You’ll have to fight hard for the best performers because many companies are ramping up recruitment. For example:

● Public accountants are a lifeline for small and midsize businesses right now. They’re helping clients navigate unpredictable cashflows, as well as shifting compliance requirements.

● Corporate accountants are tasked with finding new efficiencies that will keep businesses viable during financial turbulence.

● Government accounting departments have been forced to scale up quickly to address a raft of unprecedented financial aid packages.

● Financial services institutions are helping clients secure credit and reorganize liabilities during tough times.

● Healthcare companies need staff to deal with billing, reconciliations and new payment processes.

Retention still a concern

Skilled professionals are making career moves, even during a pandemic, and retention remains paramount. Unemployment is higher, but not that high for those with specialized skill sets, so in-demand accountants could be tempted to join another company. For businesses with currently lean staff levels, even the loss of a single skilled professional could be a serious blow.

In a separate Robert Half survey highlighted in the 2021 Salary Guide, more than eight in 10 managers said they are worried about losing valued employees. Here are their primary concerns:

· 55% are worried about losing staff over morale-related issues

· 50% have employees who are facing burnout from heavy workloads

· 37% imposed salary cuts with no prospect of raises in the immediate future

Salaries remain stable

Median salaries are fairly stable across the board, though (as ever) the best candidates in the hottest sectors will be looking to negotiate a bump in pay. Use the Robert Half salary calculator to ensure you’re paying at least market value for your region.

Remote work is the new normal

The pandemic sparked a mass exodus from corporate to home offices. This was jarring for many workers, but research in the guide suggests that few employees are in a hurry to get back to company HQ. Almost three in four workers say they want to keep working from home after the pandemic.

When hiring, you’ll need to balance the desire of highly skilled candidates to work from home with the needs of the organization. Fortunately, you’ll be in a much better position to make these calls than you were in late March, since your firm should now have more data and anecdotal evidence to draw on regarding the productivity and morale of remote workers across your teams.

Tech skills are essential …

If you’re looking to add to your remote teams, new recruits should be tech savvy and capable of learning new systems with little or no in-person training. They need to be able to work with cloud-based systems, understand IT security protocols and be comfortable using digital communication tools. Home-based workers also need to have the basic IT skills to solve common computer and networking issues, as they won’t have hands-on support from a helpdesk technician.

However, while it’s easy to be dazzled by the new and exciting world of remote working, keep in mind that collaborative platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams are much easier to master than specialized accounting software. Microsoft Excel, QuickBooks (for smaller businesses), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and similar applications remain the gold standards, and you should assess candidates’ resumes accordingly.

… but so are soft skills

When is an Excel wizard with a fully equipped home office wrong for your organization? Perhaps when their track record or interview performance suggest that they struggle to collaborate with colleagues, or that they find it difficult to adapt to changing goals and circumstances. In these challenging times, soft skills such as critical thinking, resilience and flexibility can be every bit as important as technical expertise.

The need for these attributes is not driven just by the pandemic. As new technology such as AI becomes an integral part of finance jobs, you’ll place a greater emphasis on the kind of human values that can’t be replaced by an algorithm.

Flexible staffing is the future
Flexible staffing — an adjustable mix of full-time and interim professionals — is a strategy many companies have long been using to temporarily access specialized expertise and scale their teams as needed without overburdening full-time staff. It is tailor made for the current situation. Asked why they worked with interim professionals, more than a third of senior managers said it was to remain agile during the economic turmoil.

Predicting the future has never been harder. But if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that uncertain times reward companies that are nimble and innovative.

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الأربعاء, 21 سبتمبر 2022 11:40

كيفية جمع المستندات من العملاء أثناء العمل عن بُعد؟

مع عمل الكثير منا من المنزل بسبب فيروس كورونا ، فإن الطريقة التي نعمل بها مع العملاء بأكبر قدر ممكن من الكفاءة أصبحت أكثر أهمية من أي وقت مضى

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المحتوى بالإنجليزية How to collect documents from clients while working remotely
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT, WORKFLOW TOOLS
April 23, 2020 / Mariette Martinez, EA
With the tax deadline postponed and many of us working from home due to the coronavirus, being as efficient as possible with the way we work with clients is more important than ever. To be successful, we need to move more clients online. This starts with operating a 100 percent cloud-based practice and implementing an effective process for document collection.

Since my clients’ technical skills varied from highly tech savvy to new online app users, it was essential that the technology and client implementation would be seamless and user friendly for my multiple client types. I also wanted to keep our workflow as simple as possible, so using the fewest number of applications would create the best-case scenario. I wanted to synchronize what I had already implemented in my current operational workflow, while partnering that with serving my clients’ needs to stay connected. Ultimately, these processes provide me the necessary documents to keep our work flowing seamlessly.

I know that making these kinds of changes in your practice isn’t easy – and it takes time, especially now that we’re sheltering in place. According to an Intuit® Accountant Panel survey in March 2020 that asked about the most pressing issues due to the coronavirus, 42 percent of the 247 respondents said that getting documents from their clients was by far their biggest struggle when working virtually.

Whether you’re very experienced in collecting documents from your clients without seeing them in person – or if this is new for you because of the coronavirus, here are several best practices I can share to make the process easier.

The essence of a strong document collection platform, also referred to as a document portal, is a centralized, secure location to share documents and collaborate with clients and staff.

We chose Citrix ShareFile for our preferred solution, but several other options include Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, SmartVault and Intuit Link.

Several platforms allow firms to personalize the document portal experience with their firm branding to provide a more trusted and professional client experience. These document platforms also commonly enable:

Collaborating on documents and editing in real time.
Encrypted client requests with notifications and reminders.
Encrypted email for those times when email is the best way.
Sending and receiving of large files.
Most importantly, the document collection solution you choose should include a high level of encryption for your files, large space storage capabilities that can scale with your firm, and online and desktop automated syncing of all stored files. You definitely don’t want to encourage clients to send you their documents over email. The bottom line is that you and your clients should be able to securely share, collect, and collaborate on documents no matter where you are.

In addition, several platforms integrate with other helpful tools. One of my favorite integrations is Slack with Google Drive. What are some of your favorite integrations? Leave a comment below to share your recommendations.

One other concern: What do you do if your clients don’t want to send you their documents through the cloud? These “shoebox” clients may not be tech savvy and prefer physically dropping off their information to you, but if you’re working remotely and cannot see them in person, what do you do? You don’t want to lose a long-term client, so here are several recommendations:

Sit down with them over a phone conversation, or if they can figure it out, a web call, to explain how your portal works. Walk them slowly through the process and perhaps have them practice or test uploading something to you.
Record a quick video that also explains the process and send this to your clients who may need help using the platform. You can also include a link to the video in your email signature. Here’s an example of this type of video.
If a client absolutely insists on dropping off or mailing their documents, the best advice I can give is to go with the flow, and ensure your clients have a secure, private place to leave their documents with you outside your place of work to avoid contact during drop off. Most likely, this will be a very small slice of your client base.
When you find and implement the winning platform, you not only stay safe during this time of social distancing, but you will save time on document collection in your practice and witness the magic of productive collaboration. Good luck!

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الإثنين, 03 أكتوبر 2022 10:41

كيفية تبسيط التكنولوجيا أثناء فيروس كورونا؟

مع ظهور أزمة فيروس كورونا، تكتشف الشركات من جميع الأحجام كيفية العمل في بيئة العمل من المنزل

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الثلاثاء, 13 أكتوبر 2020 11:22

أربع خطوات لتصبح شركتك افتراضية

بينما كان مفهوم الشركات الافتراضية والفرق البعيدة موجودًا منذ عدة سنوات، فقد كافحت العديد من شركات المحاسبة لإجراء التغيير في نموذج أعمالها لعدد من الأسباب

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